


we will wear our masks again out after dark

by IMightwing



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Baggage, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, M/M, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-22 00:16:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11955723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IMightwing/pseuds/IMightwing
Summary: Dick paused and looked straight at Jason. “I want you to be Batman until I’m healed.”“No,” Jason said. No way in hell, he wanted to say, but the quicker he got this over with, the better.Written for the Batfam Reverse Big Bang 2017.





	we will wear our masks again out after dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pentapus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentapus/gifts).



> This was written for the Batfamily Reverse Big Bang. Penta drew some amazing art, which you can find at the end of the fic, that had me itching to write for it. I had so much fun writing this, and I hope everyone enjoys reading it!
> 
> I want to thank [samaelstoker](http://archiveofourown.org/users/samaelstoker/pseuds/samaelstoker), [Volavi](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Volavi/pseuds/Volavi), [xserenity](http://archiveofourown.org/users/xserenity/pseuds/xserenity), and [Zillabird](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Zillabird/pseuds/Zillabird) for reading and beta-ing this in all the various stages of completion. I also want to thank the discord lovelies for cheerleading, sprinting, and just generally being awesome.
> 
> Finally, a couple notes on canon. I essentially disregarded everything that happened in Battle for the Cowl in this fic. I also am aware that Dick and Damian didn't live at the manor during Dick's time as Batman, but I ignored that as well.
> 
> Title taken from Ambulance by My Chemical Romance.

_BATMAN DOWN: IS THIS THE END OF THE BAT?_

_BREAKING 03:00 A.M. GOTHAM CITY – The Caped Crusader was last seen being dragged into the Batmobile by Robin just after 2:30 a.m. outside of Crime Alley. Batman went down in a fight against the Joker and his goons. More information about Joker’s latest plot will be added as it comes to light._

_The Joker’s men were seen firing on both Robin and Batman. Robin sustained no apparent injuries, as he was able to remove Batman’s body from the scene. Batman was seen diving in front of Robin, before being shot and losing consciousness._

_The city waits with bated breath for news of its costumed savior._

_UPDATE, 10:35 A.M.: The warehouse where Joker has allegedly been conducting his criminal activities has burned to the ground. No sign of his whereabouts, and there has still been no statement or information released on the condition of Batman._

Jason snorted, throwing his phone with the news article down on the kitchen table. Typical Gotham Gazette; no actual substance, but plenty of sensationalism to go around. Who needs news when headlines alone will bring in revenue?

Jason sighed and looked over at his phone. The light was still flashing, telling him that he still hadn’t technically read the message from Dick. He’d seen the notification appear, glanced at it, purposefully ignored it, and gone to take a shower. 

_Hey Jay! Please come to the manor sometime today. Have something urgent to discuss. Also Alf made snickerdoodles!_

Jason had been patrolling in a different part of the city than Batman and Robin last night. He was still refusing to wear the comm unit Babs had given him a few months ago, but she’d responded quickly when he’d texted her asking what had happened. 

Dick was fine, for the most part. But in diving to save Damian, whose suit lacked the amount of armor and Kevlar the Batsuit boasted, Dick had landed weirdly on his right arm and sprained his wrist pretty badly. He also had actually been shot, but only barely, so Jason supposed he had to give the Gazette a couple of points for reporting something correctly. 

Jason sighed. He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what Dick was going to ask, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. But better to get it out of the way, Jason supposed. The sooner Dick asked, the sooner Jason could tell him to fuck off. Also, Alfred’s snickerdoodles were to die for, and Jason considered himself a good authority on what one should be willing to in fact, die for.

He texted back:

_On my way over. Don’t eat them all, Dickface._

*

Jason pulled up to the manor, resisting the urge to brake hard and send gravel flying everywhere. He’d always hated how silent and imposing the manor had felt, and since Bruce’s death, it had only gotten worse. The manor had always felt like a tomb, a monument to the happy family that had been destroyed one night after the movies in Crime Alley. But now with Bruce dead, the property itself just felt empty. Lifeless. 

Why anyone would choose to live here, Jason had no clue. He tucked his helmet under his arm and went to ring the doorbell. After a few moments, the door opened up to reveal Alfred’s tired face. 

“Master Jason, you have security codes. There is no need for you to stand upon such formality. You are family.” Alfred said reproachfully, then quirked his lips up in a faint smile. “Nevertheless, it is good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too, Alfred.” And it was. Jason had no animosity towards Alfred. Some of his favorite memories of his time as Robin had been spent with Alfred in the kitchen, learning how to refine his cooking skills and discussing classic literature. Alfred was the one who had taught him how to make some of his favorite meals. Jason wasn’t sure if they were his favorite meals because he liked the food, or if they were his favorite meals because Alfred had taught him how to make them. Either way, his time with Alfred had been his favorite part of the day. His favorite part of the night, of course, had been donning the Robin costume and fighting crime with Bruce. It had been his own special kind of magic. He’d understood, then, how people could get addicted to things. The feeling of being Robin had been Jason’s first major vice, though not his last.

“Master Richard is in the cave. I do believe that’s why you’re here?” Alfred said, walking over to the grandfather clock. 

“Yeah. It is.” Jason muttered darkly as he walked down to the cave. 

“You’d better not have eaten all the cookies!” he called as he walked down the stairs. 

Dick was sitting in the chair in front of the bank of monitors. Bruce’s spot. Seeing Dick sitting there, even dressed in sweats, was still a jarring experience. It had never bothered Jason to see other people sitting there before, but now… It served as a reminder. A reminder that Bruce was gone. A reminder that all of their fighting, all of their issues, would never be resolved. Bruce had died, and with him had died Jason’s chance at having a father again.

Dick swiveled the chair around to face Jason. Speaking of jarring experiences, Dick looked awful. His right arm was wrapped and in a sling, he had a bandage taped over his chest, and another on his left arm. From the way he was gingerly holding himself in the chair, everything hurt. 

“I didn’t eat them all, calm down. Damian might’ve, but I didn’t.” He rolled his eyes, then winced as the motion jostled something it shouldn’t have.

“You haul my ass all the way over here, tempt me with cookies, and now that I’m here I don’t even get any?” Jason shook his head. “You truly live up to your name.”

Dick chuckled, then his expression grew serious. “Jay, I asked you to come over because I need to talk to you about something.”

“You mean this isn’t a social call? I’m shocked,” Jason replied drily, leaning on the computers opposite Dick. 

“No, it’s not. Though if you accept my proposal, we will be seeing a lot more of each other.” Dick took a deep breath. “As you can see, I got injured on patrol last night, to the extent where I can’t wear the cowl until I heal. Alfred said if I use my wrist too much, I could cause permanent damage.” Dick paused and looked straight at Jason. “I want you to be Batman until I’m healed.”

“No,” Jason said. No way in hell, he wanted to say, but the quicker he got this over with, the better.

“Jason, please. At least think about it before you refuse so quickly.” Dick rubbed the non-injured hand over his face. “I know it’s not ideal. And I know it’s something you’re probably not even comfortable with, and I respect that, I really do. So trust me when I say that I wouldn’t ask you to do something that makes you uncomfortable unless there were literally no other options.”

“Tim?” Jason asked. “Clark? I find it hard to believe that there’s literally no one but me.”

“Clark is busy in Metropolis, he doesn’t have the time even if he wanted to. And his fighting style is too recognizable.” Dick patiently explained. “Tim isn’t the right size, he’s not the same build.” Dick looked down at his hands, visibly worried. “Besides, he’s… holding on to the hope that Bruce is still alive somehow. He’s out looking for evidence. I’m not even sure where he is, currently. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard from him.” 

That made Jason stop for a minute. “Do you believe him? Do you think Bruce is alive?”

“I don’t know,” Dick sighed as he looked back up. Jason surprised at the open pain on Dick’s face. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if Dick had looked that anguished when he’d died, then quickly squashed that thought back down. “I want to. If he is, Tim will be the one who finds him. He’s the only one of us who could, I think. But I’m worried about Tim. The search has… consumed him, for lack of a better word.”

“So basically what you’re saying is, help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, I’m your only hope?” Jason asked, arching an eyebrow, trying to lighten the mood. A walk down memory lane wouldn’t help either of them right now.

Dick huffed a soft laugh. “You really are. I’d put on a metal bikini if I thought it would make you say yes. Though I’m not sure I’d fill it out well.”

Jason begged to differ, but that thought could go back deep into the recesses of his mind where it came from and never surface again. This day was already shaping up to be awful, thoughts of Dick wearing a Slave Leia outfit did not need to happen on top of all that.

“Answer’s still no, Dick. I can’t do it.” Jason crossed his arms, unintentionally guarding himself. 

“Are there any circumstances in which I could convince you to do this?” Dick asked. “Look, I know that things haven’t been good between us for a long time, maybe ever. And I know that losing Bruce has been terrible for us both. I’m not trying to psychoanalyze you, I promise. But I do understand that stepping into the cowl would not be an easy experience for you. I want you to know that I am aware of that fact.” Dick sighed. “That being said, I need you to do this. I really don’t have any other option, and more importantly, the city can’t go without Batman. I’m not talking about from a crime standpoint, I mean from a human standpoint. You know what Batman means to the city. Everyone feels safe when they know Batman is patrolling, watching over them. Alfred says it’ll probably take two weeks for my wrist to heal. Two weeks without Batman is a long time. So I’m asking you to do this. That’s all, just two weeks. Please, Jason.”

Jason gave Dick a long look. Of all the cards Dick could play, he chose the Gotham card. Unfortunately, Jason knew Dick was right. The city did need Batman. Both for the sense of well-being and comfort Dick had mentioned, but also for crime. If the scum of the city found out there was no Batman, Jason didn’t want to know what kind of chaos would reign. As shitty as the city was, it was home. Jason was Gotham blood through-and-through, in a way that Dick wasn’t. He’d grown up in its underbelly, then been raised from that nightmare to live the dream. Jason didn’t want his city destroyed. Because if Gotham went down, the people it would affect the most were the people who couldn’t help themselves. Jason almost wished that he was still killing. Dick probably wouldn’t even have asked him in that case. 

He sighed and considered his options. Say no, and let the Batman-less shit hit that fan that was Gotham City. Make his life exceedingly difficult and possibly (probably) get a lot of innocent people hurt. Or…say yes. Become Batman. Step into Bruce’s shoes in a way Jason had never thought would happen since he had come back to life. Sure, when he was a kid, when he was living his dreams as Robin, he’d thought it might happen someday. But now… Especially with Bruce gone. Jason knew Bruce would never have given him the cowl. Bruce saw him as too hot-headed, too unbalanced, too willing to break the arbitrary rules set in place. But now Bruce was dead, and Jason was the only option. And Dick needed him.

Finally, after a long moment, Jason responded. “Okay. But I am not doing this for you. I’m doing this because two weeks without Batman would only make my life far more difficult than it already is.”

Dick’s face lit up. “Jason, thank you so much, this is such a relief. I was so worried you’d say no, I didn’t know what I was going to do then.”

Jason suspected that was a lie. Dick had grown up learning from Batman, they both had. Every Robin had been trained to have backup plans for their backup plan’s backup.

“Two weeks. That’s it, I mean it. Once you’re healed, I’m done. Don’t think you’ve come up with a convenient way to pass the work onto me.” Jason pointed a finger in Dick’s face. “I don’t want this job permanently.”

“Two weeks,” Dick agreed. “Just until I can go back out again. I’ll get Alfred to come down here and try and get a suit fitted that you can wear tonight. I think, especially since our lovely friends at the Gotham Gazette got ahold of the story, that it’s exceptionally important for Batman to make an appearance tonight. We need to show the city that he’s still here.” Dick paused for a moment. “Also, I think you should consider moving into the manor temporarily.”

“What? No,” Jason responded instinctively. “I’m not doing that.”

“You seriously want to come over here every night to get ready for patrol, then drive back to your apartment at 6 a.m.? Every day for two solid weeks?” Dick rolled his eyes. “You won’t be a prisoner here, Jay. You can come and go as you please. Just thought it might be convenient to have a place here where you can crash. It’s to save you from too much extra work.” He softened slightly. “You don’t have to stay in your old room if you don’t want to. There’s plenty of guest rooms, you can take your pick.”

“It’s not that,” Jason said, lying through his teeth. It was. Partly. Jason didn’t like staying at the manor any more than he had to. Yes, some of his best memories had been here and if he’d had the chance to make more happy memories, it’d be one thing. But those days were done. He wasn’t going to get to make more happy memories of being a family with Bruce and Alfred. The possibility of a future had been ripped from him by a crowbar and an exploding warehouse and there was nothing anyone could do to bring that back.

“It’s just temporary, Jay. You can leave whenever you want. If you decide it’s not working out, you can commute.” 

“I don’t have any stuff here.”

“Go get it. Bring it back. You’ve got plenty of time until you’d need to go on patrol.” Dick started for the stairs leading out of the cave. “I’ll tell Alfred to get a room ready, and that we’ll need to work on the suit when you get back.”

Jason followed him, at a complete loss for words. He had come to the manor with every intention of telling Dick that he could stick the cowl where the sun don’t shine, and now suddenly he’d not only agreed to be Batman, but also to move back into the manor. Where had he gone wrong? And where had Dick picked up his insanely good interpersonal skills? Certainly not from Bruce. 

He nodded goodbye to Alfred who was engaged in conversation with a Dick who was clearly forgetting he didn’t have the use of both hands to gesture with. Jason kicked his bike into life and headed back into Gotham City proper. What the fuck had he done?

*

Jason returned to the manor a couple of hours later with a duffel bag full of everything he thought he might need. So basically, a few sets of clothes, some sweats, his laptop, and books. Several books. He was walking to the kitchen to find Alfred when he heard raised voices coming from the living room.

“I will be patrolling with who? That is unacceptable, Grayson,” Damian said, archly. “I don’t want to patrol with the Robin so terrible at his job he couldn’t even stay alive to do it.”

“Damian Wayne, you will not talk about him that way. It was not Jason’s fault that he died.”

Jason slunk back in the shadows to make sure Dick and Damian didn’t see him. Wasn’t it? If he hadn’t been so obsessed with finding his true family, hadn’t ignored the family he had built right in front of him, then he wouldn’t have died. 

“Tt,” Damian scoffed. “He ran off to Ethiopia on a misguided suicide mission. If he had done his job, he wouldn’t have gotten killed.”

“Damian, you’re done. End of story.” Dick sounded mad. Jason wished he could see his face. “Jason was a good Robin. A good person. It isn’t his fault that he died. It’s mine, and your dad’s. We weren’t there for him. We didn’t give him what he needed to succeed. And that’s that last I want to hear of it, okay? He’s Batman, and you’re Robin. You’re going to have to work together.”

Jason was shocked. He hadn’t expected…hadn’t known…did Dick really blame himself for Jason’s death? He quietly slunk back down the hall and made sure to slam the door he’d just come in extra loudly. He then continued back towards the kitchen.

As he passed by the living room, Dick popped his head out. “Hey, Little Wing, you’re back!” He frowned. “You okay? You look kinda…off.”

Jason shook his head. Normally he was better than this, didn’t let his thoughts show on his face so easily. “I’m golden. Just super excited to be back in my old stomping grounds, ya know?” He changed the subject quickly. “Alf in the kitchen?”

“Pennyworth is in the Batcave, preparing a suit. For you.” Damian walked out from behind Dick, frowning. 

“Damian.”

“Todd.”

“Right,” Dick drew out the word like the longer he held it the sooner the tension would snap. “So, um, he’s got a room ready for you. I can show you, so you can throw your bag in there? Then we can go down to the cave and get you ready for tonight.”

“Sure. Fine.” Jason shrugged. It didn’t really make a difference to him. This was apparently his life now. He was so looking forward to spending the next two weeks of his life being berated by a ten-year-old and bossed around by Dick. This was gonna be great.

*

It was almost time to go on patrol, but Jason took a few moments more to look at his reflection in the mirror. Alfred had found an older suit of Bruce’s to modify for Jason. He couldn’t wear anything Dick had been wearing, as Dick’s slimmer build and Jason’s bulky shoulders were incompatible for sharing clothing. Jason stared at himself, the armor, the Kevlar, the gauntlets, all of it. He pulled the cowl up over his face. This was fucking weird. 

His face coming out of the cowl. Jason was pretty sure he’d had a recurring nightmare about this back when he was Robin. The Batsuit had become sentient and eaten him, forcing him to see his face staring back out at him. Compared to his more recent nightmares, it barely made a 3 on the Shit-Your-Pants scale. Jason felt almost nostalgic for it.

He checked the various pockets and compartments again, trying to remember where everything was. As a Robin, they’d all been required to memorize the exact locations of everything in the belt so they could find it at a moment’s notice, in the event of Batman being unconscious or otherwise unable to access the belt himself. There had been a few modifications since his time in the green panties, since Bruce was constantly getting new toys, but the majority of the items were exactly where Jason expected them to be. 

Jason frowned, then frowned even more when he realized how much it made him look like Bruce. He pulled the cowl back down. The less time he had to spend in it, the better, though he supposed for tonight there wasn’t any point trying to put this off any longer. Batman had to go out tonight. Dick and Barbara had ensured that certain Batman-watch twitter accounts would be getting pictures of Batman and Robin in action tonight. With any luck, if luck also meant a little help from Oracle, the pictures would go viral by morning and Gotham City would be reassured by the presence of “their” Batman. 

He walked back into the main area of the cave. “Alright kiddo, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Tt,” was Damian’s response. “If we must.”

“Oh, we must. Take it up with Boy Wonder number one if you’ve got a problem.”

“I did. I was told this was a non-negotiable situation and to, and I quote, suck it up, buttercup.” Damian frowned intensely. 

“If it makes you feel any better, he said the same thing to me.” Jason sighed.

“And I’ll say it again if I have to. But, I have something that might make tonight a little fun, at least.” Dick was dangling the key to the Batmobile from the index finger of his non-injured hand.

“That…is admittedly a perk I hadn’t thought of.” Jason grabbed the key and smirked. “What do you say, kid? Wanna go for a joyride and kick some ass?”

Damian grabbed the key out of Jason’s hand and stalked towards the Batmobile.

“You are not driving,” Jason called after him.

“Tt,” was Damian’s only response. 

As Jason moved to follow Damian to the Batmobile, Dick stopped Jason with a hand to the arm. “Thank you,” he said simply. “I know what this means for you, and I want you to know that I appreciate it even more because of that.”

Jason doubted very much that Dick actually knew what it meant for him to don the cowl, but he let it slide. “Don’t mention it.” He turned, a determined look on his face as he pulled the cowl up and got in the Batmobile. He could do this. Two weeks. Two weeks and he could go back to his red helmet and the solitary life he’d become accustomed to.

*

Driving the Batmobile was everything Jason had ever hoped it would be. The car handled like a dream, speeding around corners with ease. Jason admittedly spent more time than he had needed driving around Gotham to “get a feel for how the car handled” before he got down to the nitty-gritty of patrol, but he figured he was entitled to have a little fun. He’d even managed to get Damian to not glare at him for a few seconds, which Jason was chalking up as a win. 

“Having fun?” Dick’s voice crackled over the speaker. 

“Oh, we’re having a party,” Jason replied drily. “Something you wanted?”

“Yes, actually. Letting you know that our lovely twitter fans will be waiting by GCPD headquarters hoping to get a glimpse of Batman and Robin in action tonight, so once you’re done cruising, you should head over there sometime before the sun comes up.” Dick sounded amused, though Jason supposed there was nothing Dick could actually do to stop them even if he was mad.

“Nightwing, what are you doing on my secure line?” Barbara’s voice chimed in to the conversation.

“Oracle, my love, tell Dickface here that we’ve already got one amazing, omnipresent computer genius, and that a second one would really just complicate things.” Jason smiled.

“Oh lord, I suppose I have to call you Batman now, don’t I?” Barbara laughed. “You may not be small anymore, but I remember when you were in the short pants, too. Don’t try anything, mister.”

“We all know you could still kick my ass, O,” Jason said, turning the car to head for the GCPD.

“Those pants were ridiculous. I don’t know what you were thinking,” Damian frowned.

“I’m not the one to blame for those. Again, that’s a question for numero uno. Thanks to him, I froze my ass off anytime it wasn’t the hottest part of summer.”

“That was your decision, Gr—Er, Nightwing? What on earth were you thinking?” Damian asked, clearly disgusted. “Those are highly impractical, not to mention unsafe.”

“Aw, Robin, you’re just jealous you don’t have the legs to pull it off,” Dick said sweetly. 

“Alright, we’re almost there. How you want us to do this?” Jason asked, suddenly all business. The less said about Dick’s legs in the Robin costume, the better.

“Almost there? How fast are you driving?” Dick asked.

“You probably don’t want to know.” Jason could hear Barbara chuckling in the background.

Dick sighed. “Fine. You can do this however you want, really. All that matters is you’re seen.”

“You said these pictures will be viral by morning, right?” Jason asked, getting an idea.

“They will,” Barbara replied smoothly.

“Might as well have a little flair then, if you ask me.” Jason grinned. “Follow my lead, Robin.”

*

“That was reckless,” Dick frowned, trying to cross his arms, then remembering the sling preventing him from doing so.

“That’s pretty rich, coming from Mr. I-Wait-Until-The-Last-Second-To-Use-My-Grapple-Because-I-Enjoy-Giving-Everyone-Heart-Attacks.” Jason pulled the cowl off and shook out his squished curls. Man, cowl-hair was no joke. Dick probably had perfect hair after taking off the cowl. Asshole. “Besides, Damian had fun.”

“I did not have fun. We were working. Doing our duty to the city as Batman and Robin,” Damian said archly, heading off towards the showers.

“By which he means he had fun. Seriously, I saw the kid smile for the first time ever.” Jason continued shucking off pieces of the Batsuit. The sooner he was out of it, the better.

“You did not!” Damian called back, apparently still in hearing range.

“Thing is, I did. And it was kind of adorable. It was weird.” Jason lowered his voice just in case the kid had suddenly picked up super-hearing. Or a listening device. He really wouldn’t put it past the brat.

“Fun or not, it was still an unnecessary risk.” Dick continued. 

“Here’s the thing, Dickie,” Jason stopped taking off the suit and whirled around to face Dick. Whoops, he still had the cape on. That had probably come across as more intimidating than he’d meant it to. “We’re different people, I’m sure you’ve picked up on that little fact. I have a different style of doing things than you do. If this little agreement is going to work out, you’re going to need to accept that fact and give me the freedom to make my own decisions. I won’t be effective in the field if I’m constantly having to ask your permission to act.”

Jason hadn’t meant to go off on Dick. He really hadn’t. But in his defense, today had been a lot. He went back to trying to get out of the suit, but one of the damn gauntlets had a bad catch and he couldn’t get it to unlatch, stupid fucking--

“You’re right,” Dick agreed, coming over to where Jason was struggling with the suit. He smoothed his hand over Jason’s where it was fiddling with the gauntlet. “You’re very competent in the field, Jay. You always have been. And you’re right, I need to trust you to make your own decisions. Just try to keep an eye on Damian? He’s a good kid, deep down, but so eager to please. Makes me think a lot of another kid who wore that costume.” Dick’s fingers finally pressed down on the catch and he slid the gauntlet off Jason’s hand. He smiled up at Jason. 

“I…thanks,” Jason stuttered, suddenly feeling like he was on uneven footing. “I’m just gonna, um, shower then head upstairs. Long day.” He turned and headed for the showers, needing a few minutes alone to clear his head. He hadn’t been expecting that from Dick. After he’d yelled at him, he’d expected Dick to yell right back, to get angry. But he hadn’t. He’d agreed with Jason, told him he was competent, had known how desperate he’d been as a kid to hear those words. 

Jason had thought he’d had his stupid little crush on Dick under control. Of all the things the Lazarus pit had taken from him, his crush on Dick had been something that had stayed. He was going to have to squash that back down again. Some things didn’t need to be brought into the light. 

His hand still felt warm where Dick’s had brushed against it.

“Good night, Jay,” Dick called from his spot by the computer bank. “And thanks again.”

“Yeah. Good night, Dick.” Jason looked back. Fuck.

*

Jason allowed himself the pleasure of sleeping in the next morning, figuring that since his main job was going to be Batman for now, he was allowed an extra couple of hours to laze around and not do anything in the morning. 

When he finally ambled downstairs in the early afternoon, he found that Alfred had made waffles. Not only that, he’d kept some warm for Jason for whenever he’d woken up. 

“Well shit, if this is what being Batman is like, sign me the fuck up,” Jason said to himself, shoveling waffles onto his plate. 

“There are some definite perks to the job,” Dick said behind him. Jason chalked Dick’s ability to sneak up on him on the fact that Alfred’s waffles were incredibly delicious and he was very focused on them. Normally, he wouldn’t have let Dick get the upper hand.

“Is losing the ability to start a conversation unless I’m being a huge creeper one of them? Because that one I think I’ll pass on.” Alfred even had warm maple syrup. Why had Jason thought that moving back to the manor was a bad idea again? 

“So how was the first patrol? I never asked last night,” Dick piled waffles on another plate, before stealing the syrup away from Jason to carefully pour it in each dip of the waffle.

“It was…” Jason paused to think for a moment. “Interesting. An adjustment.”

“Ugh, tell me about it. Even forgetting all the emotional baggage of being the goddamn Batman, I’m never going to get used to wearing the suit. Alfred and I have tried making adjustments, but I just don’t like it. It’s too heavy. Unwieldy.” Dick continued eating. Jason wasn’t really sure how he was managing to eat, breathe, and talk all at the same time, but then again Jason wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

“The suit doesn’t actually bother me too much. I think it’s close enough to my normal gear that it’s not as big of an adjustment for me.” Jason shrugged. 

“I guess that makes sense. That helmet has to weigh a ton,” Dick swiped a finger through the extra syrup on his plate and sucked on it thoughtfully. “Then again, you are built more like Bruce anyway. You fight more like him, too.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jason said, eyes trained resolutely on his waffles. “Pretty sure Bruce had a very different stance on guns than I do.”

“That’s not what I meant, Jay.” Dick rolled his eyes. “My fighting style is more acrobatic. Yours was too, when you were Robin. But you bulked up in a way that I didn’t. That acrobatic style wouldn’t work for you anymore, but you make your bulk work for you. Like Bruce did. Use what you have, it’s what he taught us.”

Huh. Jason hadn’t really ever put that much thought into analyzing their fighting styles. He had purposefully distanced himself from the acrobatic Robin movies, less because he couldn’t do them anymore, and more because he wanted to be different. To fight in his own way, a way that was nothing like Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson.

“To be fair, when I was Robin I was trying to be you.” Jason stabbed another bite of his waffles harder than he probably needed to.

“I know. And I know that you’re wearing my costume and following in my footsteps again, but don’t feel the need to copy me this time. You are Batman now, I want you to make it your own. Don’t try to be Bruce, don’t try to be me. Do it your way.” Dick was smiling at Jason so sweetly that Jason couldn’t stand it. He hated how Dick had maintained this sense of innocent, pure optimism. That was something Jason had lost so long ago, he wasn’t sure he remembered ever having it in the first place. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jason probably could have made a snarky comment about what exactly his way normally entailed, but that was a fight Jason didn’t feel like starting. He honestly didn’t want to make it his own, or any of that shit. He just wanted to do patrol, be done, and have the next two weeks be over with as quickly as possible. 

“Good.” Dick took another bite of his waffles and let out a noise of contentment. 

“So…” Jason needed something to change the subject. Now. “What exactly happened the night you got hurt? You never said.”

Dick sighed. “It was…Joker.” He seemed reluctant to say it.

“You know you can say his name, right? Hearing his name isn’t going to send me into fits of apoplectic rage or anything.” Jason said, drily.

“I know!” Dick defended himself. “I’m just trying to be polite.”

“Polite?” Jason asked, somewhat incredulously. “Dick, he murdered me. It’s fine.”

Dick gave him a look like he knew Jason was lying and that his logic was crap. Jason didn’t care. “So. Joker. What happened?”

Dick looked reluctant, but started talking anyway. “He’s been out of Arkham a few months now. He got out just after Bruce died. Anyway, he’s been holed up down in an abandoned warehouse in Amusement Mile, but mostly kept to himself until the past few weeks, apart from a minor run-in when I first stepped into the cowl.”

Jason hadn’t known about that. How had he not known about that? Yeah, he mainly avoided the family as much as he could and tried to work on his own things, but not knowing the Joker was out was a pretty major thing to miss. “What happened the first time?”

“I’d gone out without Damian that night. I was just checking up on the Joker, making sure he didn’t have anything big going down, but I wasn’t used to the damn suit and wasn’t as quiet as I’d meant to be. They heard me. Managed to get me inside. I got out, but that was a major lesson in being the Bat.” Dick took another bite of his waffles, apparently more focused on eating them than filling Jason in.

“And then two nights ago…?” Jason prompted. 

“The Gazette got more right than wrong. Joker’s goons had us pinned down. They shot at us. I tried to protect Damian, since his suit isn’t nearly as reinforced as the Batsuit is and I didn’t want him getting shot. But I didn’t stick the landing and fell on my wrist. And also did kinda get shot a little. Just a graze, though. We ran to the Batmobile and drove home. Nothing so dramatic as Damian dragging my unconscious body across half of Gotham to the safety of the car. The kid can’t even drive, so I’m not entirely sure how that one was supposed to end up.” He rolled his eyes.

“There’s something you’re not telling me.” Jason narrowed his eyes. Dick had tied everything up too neatly. Neat and the Joker were two things that never went together.

“That’s the whole story, nothing else to tell.” Dick looked over at Jason, eyes wide. The picture of innocence. That just convinced Jason even more that Dick was hiding something.

“Dick, if I’m in the cowl for now, you need to tell me. It’s a liability if the Joker is up to something and I don’t have the information I need to fight him.” Jason hoped that appealing to Dick’s logical side would work. But if it didn’t, Jason could name at least three people off the top of his head who would be willing to tell him what had happened.

“Fine,” Dick agreed, looking down at his plate. “Joker had me on the ground. Taunting me. I’m pretty sure he’s figured out that I’m not Bruce. Not that he knew Bruce was Batman, but you know what I mean. He knows I’m someone else. I look different, if you’re paying enough attention. And since Nightwing hasn’t been seen in awhile, it’s really not that much of a jump to make.” Dick pushed his plate away. “That’s something else I wanted to talk to you about, actually. I think you should try and patrol once or twice as Red Hood. It’ll help create less suspicion that multiple people are Batman, and I’m sure you have cases you were working on you don’t want to abandon.”

Jason did, in fact, have cases he had been working. “Nothing that Batman couldn’t also take an interest in,” he shrugged. “But the Red Hood does elicit a different reaction that Batman does, so it might be good to keep some of these shitstains on their toes.”

Dick smiled. “Good! You also have the Cave available for help on those cases. I know you have your own resources, but we’ve got some great tech down there these days. Some fun toys. Tim completely revamped and digitized Bruce’s files on the Rogues. God, Jay. They’re beautiful.” 

“You mean we don’t have to look at some stuff on the computer, then go find the file folder that was connected to it?”

Dick shook his head.

“I might cry. Holy shit.”

*

That night, Jason and Damian sat on top of Gotham First National Bank on a tip they’d gotten from Gordon after he’d lit the Batsignal. Which had been interesting. Gordon had looked intently at Jason and Damian after they’d landed on the roof. He’d given them the tip about Penguin’s crew and the Bank tonight, all while studying them more intently than Jason remembered was normal from his days as Robin. After Jason had gruffly thanked Gordon for the tip, as they’d turned to grapple off the roof, Gordon had stopped them. 

“Wait,” he’d said. “Are you…the original? Are you back?”

“No I’m not, sir,” Jason had said. “I’m another one.”

Gordon had looked him up and down. “Another Robin, all grown up?” 

Jason had felt Damian stiffen beside him. “Yes, sir. Just filling in temporarily. Don’t worry, you’ll return to your regularly scheduled Batman soon.”

Gordon had chuckled. “Definitely another Robin. Well, Batman, even if it’s a short one, I hope our partnership is good.” He’d stuck out his hand, expecting a handshake. Jason had taken his hand and shook it. 

“I hope so as well.”

Jason wondered what Commissioner Gordon would think if he’d known the person he’d been shaking hands with was the same person who ran around town as the Red Hood. Jason suspected he would be less than pleased.

He was roused from his thoughts by Damian. 

“Tt. You could at least pretend to pay attention.”

“I am paying attention, kid,” Jason said. “Clearly you haven’t yet learned the Robin trick of paying attention while looking like you aren’t.”

“That is both untrue and wildly unprofessional. The people in this city are counting on us to do our jobs. I will not have my reputation or the cowl’s legacy sullied by an incompetent.” Damian crossed his arms and glared at Jason. 

Jason felt his blood boil. His life was shitty enough without being ordered around by a ten-year-old with a stick up his ass. “You know what? You don’t like me. I get it, it’s fine. A lot of people don’t. You’d rather be patrolling with your precious Grayson. But you’re stuck with me. And the sooner you accept it, the less painful this will be for us both,” Jason snapped. 

Damian’s glare turned from arrogant to icy. “I am well aware you didn’t want the position, but like it or not, you are Batman now. You have a responsibility to this city. You need to accept that and do your damn job.”

“I don’t--” Jason was cut off by the sound of a truck pulling up behind the bank. “We’re not done with this discussion,” Jason growled as he reached to grapple down to the street. He stopped just as he was about to fire. Fuck, he sounded like Bruce. Just one more thing from this whole experience to compartmentalize in that section of his brain labeled “Fuck Off” and never think about except for 2 a.m. when he was drunk on cheap whiskey and feeling sad. Great.

Dick’s voice sounded in Jason’s ear. “He’s trying, I promise.”

Jason fired his grapple and jumped off the building. “He sure is. Trying my patience.”

Dick sighed. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Jason dodged a punch from the driver of the truck. “You really here to chat, Snoracle? I’m a little busy at the moment.”

“Oh please, you could handle petty bank robbers in your sleep. Wait, what did you just call me?” Dick sounded less than pleased at Jason’s choice of nickname. Good.

“Snoracle. We needed a good name for you over the comms. We’ve already got a fantastic Oracle, so you can be Snoracle.” Jason pulled the driver into a headlock, then knocked him out by banging his head against the door.

“Seriously? Snoracle? That’s the best you could do?”

“I did also briefly consider Boracle.” Jason grabbed the arm of another thug and kneed him in the back. 

“Would you two cease your mindless prattling?” Damian flipped off the truck and knocked over a thug who’d been coming up behind Jason. Huh. He hadn’t noticed him. “You are incredibly distracting.”

“I don’t think Oracle would be pleased with your bastardization of her name and identity, Batman.” Dick sounded annoyed. Good, Jason thought vindictively, and definitely didn’t hit a goon in the face a little harder than strictly necessary. 

“Actually, I think it’s kind of funny,” Barbara chimed in. 

“You just like it because he complimented you.” Dick said.

Barbara laughed. “Yes. And?”

“What are you even doing on the line, Snoracle?” Jason asked. He glanced over at Damian to check in. The kid was definitely holding his own. He’d been trained well, though Jason knew firsthand the kind of training he’d received with Talia as his mother. 

“That is an excellent question. You trying to put me out of a job, Snoracle?” Jason didn’t need to see Barbara’s face to know that she would be giving Dick one of her looks. 

“No! I just thought I might make myself useful, try and provide some backup. Not that you need it, but I thought…” Dick stopped, only to hear Jason and Barbara laughing at him. “Fine. Be that way.” There was a distinct click as Dick signed off the comms.

Jason landed a final punch, and surveyed the scene. He and Damian had successfully taken down all the goons. Since Gordon knew what the plan had been, there was no need to unleash the scary Batman voice and scare information out of them. Jason was almost disappointed, not that he’d ever admit that.

After the GCPD arrived to process the crime scene, Jason and Damian returned to keeping a more mobile eye on the city in the Batmobile. 

“I meant what I said before,” Damian said, staring resolutely out the windshield. “My father and Grayson built this legacy from nothing, and I will not allow it to be ruined.”

“Are we calling a few billion dollars and a severe inability to get over anything traumatic ‘nothing,’ now? Good to know,” Jason snarked back. 

“I mean it, Todd. My father-”

“Your father was an emotionally constipated asshole, and Grayson…” Jason was lost for words. “Grayson can be just as bad.”

Damian didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You’re lying. Grayson is a good man.”

“Am I? Dick didn’t go to my funeral, did you know that? Not that he ever really cared about me when I was alive.”

“He would have gone, had he cared.” Damian crossed his arms and stared up at Jason.

“Maybe he didn’t.” Jason shrugged. “To be fair, I was just the first in a long line of replacements. Sooner or later, apparently all our costumes develop revolving doors. Watch out, you’ll have to find a new identity soon, too. Only a matter of time before you get replaced as well.” 

“I wish to return to the manor.” Damian’s voice sounded tight. Jason figured he had about seven seconds before the kid started punching him.

“We’re not done with patrol.”

“I don’t care! Take me back, now!” Jason looked over. Holy shit, the kid was seething. Jason wasn’t sure, but the kid’s eyes looked watery. And now Jason felt like the emotionally constipated asshole. Way to go, day two on the job and you made Robin cry. Fuck, Dick was going to be so mad.

The ride back to the manor passed in a stony silence. Once they’d gotten to the cave, Damian took off running. Jason didn’t bother to look where. Probably off to tattle to Dick about what a horrible person Jason was. 

“What the fuck were you thinking?” And, there it was. Dick came storming over, accosting Jason as soon as he’d gotten out of the car and pulled the cowl down.

“What, Dick? You’re going to yell at me for telling the kid what he needs to know? That his father wasn’t some paragon of justice, just some common person like the rest of us? That he could be a huge pain in the ass? That he replaced us? What do you want me to say?”

“He’s ten, Jason! He doesn’t have to know everything about our lives! And that’s not what upset him.”

“Oh, like we didn’t? Like Bruce didn’t create child soldiers out of us?”

“That’s different,” Dick glared, clenching the fist of his good arm. 

“Really? Because I’m not seeing much of a difference, here.”

Dick took a deep breath. Jason could tell he was close to losing his temper, had seen him fight with Bruce enough times to know what that looked like. “Jason, I want to be able to trust you to do your job. And to do that, you have to treat Damian carefully.”

“Obviously, you don’t trust me! Otherwise you wouldn’t feel the need to babysit me over the comm link every night.”

“Would you just listen to me? That’s not what I’m doing!” 

“Isn’t it? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you don’t believe I can be Batman.” Jason was yelling. He wasn’t sure when exactly he’d gotten so angry, only that now he was and he could see red and needed out and-- 

“Master Jason! Master Richard! That is enough.” Alfred’s voice cut cleanly through their arguing and made them both fall silent. “This has ceased to be a productive discussion. You will both go to bed, reflect on your words, and apologize to each other in the morning.”

Dick glared at Jason, before listening to Alfred and storming off upstairs.

“I’m leaving,” Jason said, going to grab his bike. “I can’t do this.”

“You are not. You will go upstairs and sleep, then tomorrow after a sane, calm discussion with Master Richard, you may decide if you wish to continue as Batman.” 

Jason sighed. He knew there was no point in arguing with Alfred.

“Fine,” he grunted, trying to regain some of his shattered dignity, and headed to change out of the damn Batsuit, ready to shed the skin and responsibilities of being Batman and go back to just being Jason. 

*  
The next morning, Jason was sitting on a stool in the kitchen staring down into his coffee, wishing it could give him the answers to everything. Jason felt kind of bad for it. That was a lot to ask of a simple beverage first thing in the morning. He ran a hand through his messy curls then got lazy halfway through and just leaned his head on the hand still tangled in his hair. He hadn’t slept well the night before, too many thoughts scrambling around in his head to allow him to actually get some rest.

This was not working out. He’d screwed up. He’d screwed up big time, and he doubted he’d be welcome in the manor once Dick and Damian had woken up. He’d purposely goaded them both into fighting with him, even though he hadn’t realized he was doing it at the time. It was almost like he wanted to fail, wanted them both to tell him he was terrible so he would finally be right. Finally have confirmation that all the terrible thoughts he’d ever had about himself had been true.

Jason knew what he was doing and yet couldn’t figure out how to stop himself. He was so sure he’d be bad at being Batman, so sure he’d fail and the family would hate him, that he was making it come true. Jason was just a walking self-fulfilling prophecy, doomed to fail. Except… Jason wasn’t so sure he wanted to fail this time.

It had only been two days, and two fairly awful patrols, and yet… Jason was having fun. Being back in the manor, being part of a team again. Jason liked it. It had been awhile since he’d had that kind of team - that kind of support system - in place.

And he was ruining it. Fucking up his chances at coming back into the family permanently. If you’d asked Jason three days ago, he would’ve told you he had no desire to ever join the Bat Brats again, and he’d only have been lying a little bit. But now, now he actually wanted it and yet he was doing everything in his power to sabotage himself. 

The hand in his hair tightened. Jason didn’t know how to not do his usual trick. He was going to have two weeks of family, a taste of what being accepted again might be, then go back to being alone.

“Ah, Master Jason, you’re awake.” Alfred walked into the kitchen. “I was just about to begin preparing breakfast. Are chocolate chip pancakes still a particular favorite of yours?” He asked with a small smile.

“They are.”

“Well, as the first to rouse their behind out of bed, I do believe you get to choose breakfast then.”

Jason chuckled, then looked back down into his coffee. He felt his smile fade.

“Is everything alright?” Alfred took a mixing bowl from a cabinet and started gathering ingredients.

“Nothing gets past you, does it Alf?” Jason was reminded of all the times he’d sat in this exact spot in the kitchen, drinking tea while Alfred taught him.

“Between Master Bruce, Master Dick, Master Tim, Master Damian, and yourself, I’d say that no. It doesn’t.” Alfred smiled slightly. “Such as the fact that you deflected my question just now.”

“I’m just… worried, I guess.”

“That you will not succeed in your current vigilante role?”

Jason’s fingers tightened around his mug. “Yeah. That I’ll let everyone down. Again.”

“Master Jason, forgive me, but I can’t think of a time when you let everyone down,” Alfred said kindly, calmly cracking an egg.

Jason gave Alfred a look. “When I ran off to a foreign country and died? When I came back to life and tried to kill everyone who had been family to me? None of that ring a bell?”

“A teenage boy, looking for the mother he’d always wanted. And a son, feeling replaced by the father he’d finally gotten. I see no letting down of anyone, other than you. I feel Master Bruce and I did not always make you feel as loved as you, in fact, were.” Alfred measured out flour and carefully stirred it into the mixture in the bowl.

“Jesus, does everyone feel guilty about my death? It’s no one’s fault but my own.” Jason ran his hand through his hair again. If the family kept this up, he was going to walk out of the manor after the two weeks were up as cheerful about his problems as Dick was.

“You were fifteen, Master Jason. I will not put the blame on you,” Alfred replied, matter-of-factly.

“I’m not winning this argument, am I?

“That would be a no, Master Jason.”

Jason sighed. “But, even if I haven’t ever let everyone down, now is the chance to start, don’t you think?”

“I do not. Master Richard and I know how difficult it is for you to step into this role. Master Damian, admittedly, does not have as deep an understanding of your past as we do, and that hinders his ability to see what becoming Batman means for you. As for your dispute with Master Richard, well, that could be due to the fact that you are both far more similar than either of you realize.”

“Dick and I are nothing alike.”

“Aren’t you? You are both driven from a place of compassion. You both care, sometimes almost too much, and both wish to help any who require it. You both want the best for those you care about, which includes this city.” Alfred set a skillet on the stove and turned on the burner. “That is why you clash. You want the same thing, but have rather different methods of achieving it.”

“So what do I do?” Jason asked. “Pretty sure he’ll be kicking me out the second he wakes up.”

“That is not Master Richard’s decision to make. This is your home, and you are welcome here as long as you wish to stay.”

Jason’s throat felt tight. “Thanks, Alf,” he said roughly.

“As for what to do, my only suggestion would be to not allow your differences with Master Richard to overcome your similarities.” Alfred flipped a pancake over and gave Jason a pointed look. “And for you personally to come to accept that you are home, and we are happy you are here.”

Jason laughed mirthlessly. “Easier said than done, I’m afraid.”

Alfred hummed. “Then we will simply have to convince you of it.”

*

Later that day, Jason was sitting in Bruce’s chair in the Batcave. From here, he could easily swivel around and see his old uniform in its case. He wondered idly if Bruce had done that on purpose, had wanted to be able to see Jason’s old suit at a moment’s notice. He’d never know, Jason mused. 

The sound of footsteps coming down the cave stairs roused Jason from his thoughts. He braced himself, ready for Dick to tear him a new one for his behavior the night before. 

“Hey,” Dick said, leaning on a console.

“Hey,” Jason replied, suddenly unsure of what to do with his hands.

“I owe you an apology,” Dick began. Jason’s eyebrows shot up. That was not what he had been expecting. “I reacted poorly, and said some things I shouldn’t have last night.”

“It’s fine, I did too.” Jason shrugged. 

“You’re so convinced you’ll fail, that you’ll make a bad Batman, that you’re trying to make it happen. But you won’t fail, Jaybird. You’re good at this. I chose you for a reason.”

“Dick, I--”

“Let me finish. It’s a good speech, I promise.” Dick smiled. 

Jason couldn’t say no to that. He sat back in the chair and nodded for Dick to continue.

“I haven’t been being a second Oracle because I don’t trust you. I do. Honestly, I did it because I’m bored.” Dick did at least have the decency to look sheepish. Jason was grateful for small miracles. “I hate being injured and feeling useless. Listening in made me feel like I wasn’t just sitting around being no good to anyone. I also have to admit, I was curious how you and Damian would get on.”

“Like a house on fire, apparently.” Jason slunk down in the chair.

“Damian is a good kid, I promise. He’s been through a lot. He wants so desperately to succeed, and is worried he’ll never measure up. Sound familiar?” Dick smiled kindly at Jason.

Jason didn’t know what to say. 

“I also have one other thing to apologize for,” Dick continued. “Your funeral.”

“Dick, it’s fine, it was a long--” Jason started, sitting up straight again, trying to shut this conversation down before it started. 

“No, Jason. It’s not.” Dick seemed determined to get this all out. “I should have been there. I was off planet, didn’t even know you’d died until months later, but I still should have been there. And not just for the funeral. I wish I’d been around more while you were Robin, but I was too caught up in my own shit with Bruce to be there for you. I wish I’d made you feel more like you had a family here. I hope you can see that you have one now, that’s all.”

Jason sat there, slightly stunned. “I don’t…” He couldn’t finish, his voice cracking under the rush of emotion he was suddenly feeling.

“It’s okay, Jay. I understand.” Jason hoped he did. He stood up, feeling slightly shaky, and pulled Dick into a tight hug. “Shh, it’s okay.” 

Jason buried his face into Dick’s neck, needing the closeness after allowing himself to open up emotionally. He could feel Dick’s good hand stroking gently through Jason’s hair and rubbing his back. 

For the first time in the past few days, ever since he’d heard about Dick being injured, he finally felt like things would be okay. He pulled back, feeling slightly raw. 

Dick smiled gently and cupped Jason’s jaw. “You’re okay.” His eye caught the suit over Jason’s shoulder. “He mourned you, you know. Horribly. Something in him broke when you died. And Tim, Damian, me. Alfred. None of us could fix that. No matter how much we tried.”

“Thank you,” Jason whispered, hoping Dick knew what he meant, what he couldn’t find the words to say. 

“Of course,” Dick smiled, in a way that made Jason sure Dick knew what he hadn’t said.

*

After the rocky first couple of days, Jason found himself settling more into life at the manor. He and Dick had reached an understanding after their conversation in the cave. Jason, daring to be hopeful for once in his life, thought maybe things were on the way to getting better between them. Dick was continuing to heal, forgoing the sling but still taping his wrist. Even Damian was being slightly less of an abrasive little shit, though Jason wasn’t sure how much of that was his influence. More likely the kid was plotting some horrible accident for him and thought being nice might make him let his guard down. Jason couldn’t tell.

So of course, something had to happen. 

Jason knew something was up a week into his time as Batman. He walked into the cave to find Dick and Barbara with their heads over a tablet. 

“What’s going on?” he asked, feeling the tension in the room and knowing that he probably wouldn’t like the answer. 

Dick and Barbara shared a look before Barbara sighed. “It’s the Joker. We’ve gotten some new information, and we think we know what he’s been up to.”

Well, Jason had been right. He didn’t like the answer. “So what do we do?” he asked anyway. 

“After Dick had that run in with him a few months ago, Joker laid low for a while. Until the incident last week,” Barbara began. “Taking how he acted towards Dick into consideration, we think Joker’s figured out that Bruce is gone, and that someone new has taken over.”

“What we don’t know as of yet is what Joker plans to do with that information,” Dick said. 

“There’s been some buzz that Joker is looking for people with tech experience. Cameramen, streamers. We think he wants to unmask Batman. Which makes your life a lot more dangerous, Jay,” Barbara finished, looking kindly up at Jason. 

It just had to fucking be the Joker, didn’t it? Couldn’t ever be just some random asshole who decided to stalk someone, who Jason could just shoot out their kneecaps and be done with the whole situation. No, his life wasn’t that simple. Of course it just had to be the man who’d tortured him, who’d beaten him within an inch of his life with a crowbar. It had to be him.

“Again, what do we do?” Jason asked, slightly impatient this time. Yes, his life was going to be in danger, but how was that any different from every other time he went out on patrol? Besides, if Jason did get the chance to confront the Joker…Well, the Joker might not have to be a problem anymore. Jason knew Bruce’s reason for not killing. Didn’t like it, but understood it. But the Joker… How many families were torn apart because of his actions? How many people died? Lost a mother, a father? 

A son?

“Jason?” Dick asked softly. Jason started, not having heard the question that had been asked. He unclenched the fists he didn’t remember making and crossed his arms instead. 

“I’m fine. How do we deal with this?”

Barbara glanced between Jason and Dick. “Well, I have a plan.”

*

The plan, as it turned out, was basically “get to Joker before he can get to us.” Dick argued that it was too simplistic, but Jason sided with Babs that the simpler the plan, the better the chance of it succeeding. They’d unanimously decided that Damian needed to be kept out of the warehouse that Joker was using as a base of operations. Jason figured Damian probably wouldn’t like that decision, so he’d decided Dick was going to get to break that particular bombshell. Dick didn’t like that Jason would be going in with no backup, but Barbara and Jason had argued that they didn’t have a choice, that they needed to do this as quickly as possible. They couldn’t give Joker more time to set his plan into motion. Jason would plant bombs on one side of the warehouse, Babs would blow their lights, and in the confusion, Jason would slip in, grab the Joker, and slip out with no one being the wiser. 

Of course, if the Joker somehow accidentally met a tragic end in the confusion, Jason figured he’d probably get the blame. Not that the thought of blame was enough to keep him from considering taking out the Joker permanently. How could he not? It was the perfect opportunity. How many lives would be saved by one death? Jason knew that Dick followed the Rules of the Bat to the letter. Most of the time these days, Jason did too, apart from the occasional slip-up. But in those instances, Jason had decided that the world would have a net gain if one more child molester or human trafficker died, and saw that justice was carried out in his own way.

So Jason had come to a crossroads. Figure out a way to take out the Joker in the crossfire, and be alienated from the family, or make sure that the Joker got out alive and safely to Arkham, where he’d probably break out within six months…but keep his newfound family.

Jason wasn’t sure which idea he found more appealing, and the thought that he couldn’t choose made him slightly sick. 

They’d set the date for the raid for six days from tonight, just before the end of Jason’s tenure as Batman. Dick had tried to argue that it could wait until he was back in the cowl, but Barbara and Jason had argued that the sooner they could take care of it, the better. Not to mention that Dick had no business taking on the Joker his first night back after two weeks off. 

And so it would happen in six days. Jason had wanted it over with sooner if possible, but Babs had argued that there was no way she could get what he needed to make the bombs in fewer than four days. They’d all agreed that using anything Bat-branded was a bad plan, in case everything went sideways and they had to abandon the mission halfway through. Jason had volunteered to make the bombs using some of the more recent skills he’d picked up, though Dick had given him a slightly disapproving look. 

In six days, Jason would come face-to-face with the man who killed him. He hoped he was ready.

He watched as Dick kissed Babs on the cheek, before she wheeled herself out to her car. It was late, and they’d tried to get her to stay at the manor, but she’d insisted she had work to do, and she needed her own tech to do it. 

Dick turned around to see Jason leaning up against a wall of the entranceway. “You alright? I know tonight was a lot.”

Jason shrugged. “Just a lot to process.”

“I hate to make you do this.” Dick shook his head and rubbed awkwardly at his shoulder. “It should be me.”

“It should be neither of us. In an ideal world, the Joker wouldn’t exist, and we wouldn’t have to dress up in costumes every night and fight crime.” Jason sighed. “But that’s not the world we live in.”

Dick gave him a long look, almost as if he was considering something. “Come with me,” he said finally, grabbing Jason’s wrist and pulling him up the stairs. 

“Where are we going?” Jason asked, following behind Dick, resolutely trying to not look at Dick’s butt as he went up the staircase ahead of him. 

“You’ll see, just come on,” Dick opened the door of his bedroom and walked directly to the window. He only dropped Jason’s wrist to open it. 

Jason took a second to look around Dick’s room. Dick was a force of nature, both in personality and how he lived, and his room reflected it. There were clothes strewn about the floor, pictures on every wall of his friends and family. Dick’s room looked lived-in, as opposed to Jason’s room at his safehouse. The only way you could tell if Jason had been there recently was if the bookmark in the paperback on the nightstand had moved. 

“You coming, Little Wing?” Jason turned to see Dick half out the bedroom window.

“Dick, what the fuck are you doing?” Jason went over to the window in time to watch Dick dart off of it. 

“Going up to the roof,” he answered.

“Need I remind you that you’re injured? Kinda the whole reason I’m here in the first place?” Jason asked, slightly incredulous as he watched Dick jump to the edge of the balcony, then climb up to the roof using the ancient drainpipe. 

“It’s fine, Jay. Didn’t even need to use my hands.” Dick grinned at him, sitting cross-legged on the roof of the manor. 

“Is there a reason you couldn’t have just gone out the balcony? Had to use the window,” Jason grumbled, following Dick’s path up to the roof. Fucking acrobat. “Or, I don’t know, get a ladder?”

“What would be the fun of that?” Dick laughed, his tan skin glowing in the moonlight.

Jason was sure he’d had a witty comeback primed and ready, but he suddenly couldn’t think of it. “Not hurting yourself can be fun,” he said, distractedly. _Wow, good one Jay_ , he thought to himself. 

Dick used his head to gesture off in the distance. Jason turned to look. 

It was Gotham. Far enough away that you couldn’t make out any of the details, just a hint of skyline and the lights shining up. From here, it looked bright, borderline hopeful. More like the sunny expanse of Metropolis rather than the Gothic architecture they were all intimately familiar with. So much better than any of them knew it currently was.

“Ever since I started as Robin, I’d come up here when I needed some perspective.” Dick said quietly. “Sometimes it’s nice to remember what the city looks like from the outside, instead of looking at it up close and personal every night. The city looks so beautiful from here. It looks like somewhere people could be happy. Not have to worry about people like the Joker.”

“Dick, I appreciate the gesture, but I know firsthand the shit Gotham will put you through.” Jason said, resting his elbows on his knees. 

“I know,” Dick said, looking over at him. “That’s not actually why I brought you up here. Look up.”

Jason looked up to see the sky alight with stars. 

“We’re far enough out of the lights of the city that you can actually see them,” Dick said. “I missed the sky, when Bruce first took me in. I spent most of my childhood running around outside in circus tents. When I first moved in, the manor felt so…constricting. I’d come up here to feel like I could breathe again.” He ducked his head down and looked at his hands. “Silly, I know.”

God, Jason wanted desperately to kiss him. Instead, he swallowed and said, “Not silly. I know what you mean. The manor was imposing to me, as a kid. But I was so happy to be here, I guess that wore off. But I wish I’d known you could see Gotham like this.” Jason’s childhood room had been on the other side of the hallway. The view from his bedroom was the gardens. 

Dick leaned over and rested his head on Jason’s shoulder. “Thanks for coming up here with me, Jaybird.”

 _I’d follow you wherever, can’t you see that?_ Jason thought. But he didn’t say that. He couldn’t. Instead he said, “Anytime, Goldie,” and looked out at the city where he’d been born. The city where he’d lived on the streets, where he’d stolen the tires off the Batmobile. 

He felt the warmth of Dick up against him, and listened to him breathe, and wished that this moment could last forever.

 

*

“You knew my father,” Damian said one night as they were driving around Gotham in the Batmobile.

“I did. Was that a question?” Jason asked, unsure of where this was going. The kid wasn’t exactly the most talkative at the best of times. In fact, Jason was pretty sure this was the first time he had started a conversation that didn’t have anything to do with the mission at hand.

“I have heard stories from Grayson and Pennyworth, but I know they held very different views of my father than you did. It is important to understand all sides. So I ask you, what was he like?” Damian turned to look at him.

That wasn’t what Jason had been expecting. “Your dad…was complicated. Anything Dick and Alfred told you was true. He was a good man,” Jason admitted. He had made his peace enough with Bruce to admit that. “But he wasn’t perfect.”

“Of course he wasn’t, no one can reach perfection.” Damian snorted. What a charming kid.

“I’m not saying he was a bad person,” Jason sighed. “He just…didn’t know how to handle me. I was an angry kid. A kid who needed an outlet, and he gave me that. But I also needed other things, stuff he either wasn’t sure how to help or didn’t even realize I needed.”

Jason glanced over at Damian, who was looking at him with a steady expression.

“We both made mistakes. I can admit that now. He wasn’t a bad man, by any means. Just had a very precise way of understanding the world, and I didn’t always fit in it.”

Damian looked at Jason for another long moment, before nodding his head once. “Thank you,” he said politely.

Jason couldn’t help but feel he’d passed some sort of test.

*

Despite everything else in his life being a pain, Jason was just starting to think he had a handle on his feelings for Dick when the universe decided to prove him otherwise. He walked into the cave one afternoon, planning on using the cave’s extensive databases to help him with a drug trafficking case, but stopped short when he saw what Dick was doing.

Dick was on one of the mats lying on his back with his feet resting on the floor behind his head, presenting his ass to whoever happened to walk into the room. 

“Uh, Dick?” Jason asked, really not sure what he was seeing and trying not to stare at Dick’s butt.

“Jason, hey!” Dick swung his legs up and opened them into a split so he was looking at Jason through his spread legs. “Could you help me with something?”

Jason was pretty sure he was about to keel over from embarrassment, but he nodded. “Sure, what’s up?”

“I haven’t been as active the past week with the whole wrist thing, and I’m not feeling as bendy as I like to. Can you help me stretch?” Dick thankfully rolled up to a sitting position.

“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Fuck. “What do you need me to do?”

Dick rolled down so that he was lying flat on his back again. “Grab my leg?” He lifted his right leg up and offered it to Jason, who numbly walked over and grabbed Dick by the ankle. He gently pushed until Dick’s knee was brushing his shoulder. 

“Remember when you used to help me stretch?” Dick asked, smiling.

Jason did. It had been near the middle of his time as Robin, after Dick and Bruce had made up somewhat and Dick had actually been around some. They used to spar, and afterwards Dick would show him all the stretches he did to maintain his acrobatic flexibility. 

“I do. Probably wouldn’t have been able to mimic you if you hadn’t taught me some of that.” Jason tried to keep his eyes trained on Dick’s face.

Dick laughed. “You had the skills, I just helped enhance them. I think that’s good for that leg.” Jason carefully guided Dick’s leg down and repeated the stretch on the other side. “It’s driving me crazy not being out there.”

“You never have liked being still though, have you?” Jason looked down at Dick trying to ignore just how much extended contact they were having, and what it was doing to Jason.

“I prefer to be doing things. Not much of a planner, either,” Dick laughed.

“Oh I’m well aware of that one,” Jason said drily. 

“Aw, come on Jay,” Dick teased. “My methods are effective.”

“Your methods are dangerous.” Jason looked pointedly at the athletic tape wrapped around Dick’s wrist.

Dick shrugged lightly. “Shit happens.”

Jason couldn’t help it, he laughed. “That might be the most accurate assessment of our lives to date.”

Dick wriggled his ankle and Jason let go of the leg he was stretching. Dick tucked his knee up and twisted his back, stretching out his hips. “Push,” he instructed Jason.

There was no good way to do this. Jason awkwardly sat next to Dick to push on his knee and tried to avoid any part of his body brushing up against Dick’s butt.

“I really do appreciate this, Little Wing.” Jason couldn’t see Dick’s face, but it sounded like he was smiling. 

“Yeah, yeah. Use me as your personal trainer, I see how it is.” Jason was trying to keep the conversation light.

“I mean all of this, Jay.” He tapped Jason’s hand and rolled over to stretch the other side. As he rolled, his leg brushed up against Jason’s. 

“You don’t have to keep thanking me for that, Dick.” Jason pushed down on Dick’s other knee. 

“Maybe not.”

“You’re going to keep thanking me, aren’t you?”

Dick’s grin was all the answer Jason needed. Suddenly, Dick was moving again. He spun around so that he was practically sitting in Jason’s lap. He spread his legs to either side and looked back over his shoulder. “Push,” he instructed again.

Clearly, the gods of keeping your crush hidden from your vigilante successor were not smiling on Jason today. He clumsily spread his legs out on either side of Dick’s and leaned on his back. 

“C’mon Jay, more. I’m bendier than that.” Dick wriggled his butt back and accidentally brushed Jason’s crotch. 

Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. Jason swallowed deeply and pushed down on Dick’s back, pushing him deeper into the stretch. He tried to keep his breathing under control and determinedly did not think about the compromising position they were currently in. 

Dick stretched his arms forward and groaned at the extra stretch in his back. “Just like that Jay, that’s perfect,” he said breathlessly.

Fuck, nope. Jason couldn’t do this. “Sorry, Dick, I actually remembered I’m supposed to meet up with, uh, a contact. I’ll see you later.” He quickly scrambled to his feet and went to grab the keys to his bike.

Jason had to get out of the manor, had to get some air, had to get away from Dick, from the feeling that he was overflowing, wanted to just kiss and touch and confess and he couldn’t…

He straddled his bike and quickly kicked it on. He pulled out of the garage and felt the wind whip against his body. 

Tonight was patrol ten of fourteen. He was past the halfway point. He was almost done.

And of course Jason had left the situation in the cave in probably the least graceful way possible. He groaned as he realized that Dick had probably figured out what was going on by now. Why else would Jason leave in such a hurry? Jason took a deep breath, trying to stop the panic he could feel rising in his chest. Just a few more days of this. A few days and Jason would be free to go back to one of his anonymous safehouses and lick his wounds and harbor his crush in private. 

Just a few more days.

*

Jason had just put his plate into the dishwasher after breakfast when Dick walked into the kitchen. 

“Hey Jay, can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked, looking apprehensive.

“Sure. What’s going on?” Jason crossed his arms and leaned against the countertop, suddenly feeling worried.

“I know that we made our deal that you would do this for two weeks,” Dick took a deep breath, “but Alfred just x-rayed at my wrist, and it’s looking like it won’t be fully healed at the end of our bargain.”

“And what, you want me to just stay on?” Jason clenched his fists. No, he couldn’t do this. He’d been counting down the days from the start, but it had only gotten worse since Dick’s little stretching festival in the cave. He was only supposed to have two days left before he could leave, get out of the manor finally and feel like he could breathe again.

“It’d only be for a few more days, a week max,” Dick pleaded. “I’m just not healing as fast as we thought.”

“No, Dick. Don’t ask me.” Jason could feel the pangs of anxiety tightening around his chest. He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t. 

“Jason. I’m sorry. But I don’t have any choice.”

“Yes, you do!” Jason snapped. “The city won’t explode if Batman isn’t around for a few days.”

“I mean, you don’t know that,” Dick started.

“You are insufferable,” Jason glared.

“Again, I’m sorry to have to ask, but--”

“Oh you’re sorry. That makes it all better!” Jason threw his hands up in the air.

“I understand that this is difficult for you, but I thought you had a little more maturity than this,” Dick said coldly.

“Maturity? You want to talk maturity? My apologies for not actually getting to finish my adolescence.” Jason needed to get out, get out before he said something stupid. 

“Jason,” Dick sighed.

“No, you know what, you’re right. Maybe I’m not mature enough for this. Maybe I should just leave you to it.” Jason stormed out of the kitchen and headed for the garage.

“Jay, come back. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Dick scurried after him.

“No, Dick. I’m done.”

*

Jason sat on the rooftop of Wayne Tower, leaning up against his favorite gargoyle. It wasn’t the best hiding spot he could have chosen, but there was something about the familiarity that Jason desperately needed right now. It was probably stupid to come up here in civvies, but who was going to yell at him for it?

When had his life gone so far off the rails? The honest answer to that was probably that his life had always been off the rails, but it had gone even further awry in the past two weeks. Two weeks ago, he had been living in a safehouse with minimal family contact and doing things his way. 

Now…now he had a family again. A support system. People who cared. And Jason had just thrown it all away. 

Or had he? The thought suddenly struck Jason that he had a choice. He could leave, go back to his safehouse and cut all contact with the family. Quit being Batman and go back to his solitary lifestyle. Or…he could go back now that he’d had a chance to cool off. Go back to the manor, apologize for yelling, and agree to stay on another week. The decision was entirely in his hands.

He thought about going back to his safehouse. He could do what he wanted, didn’t have to answer to anyone. He could live life as he saw fit and didn’t have to follow any arbitrary rules. He thought of the manor. He thought of Alfred’s tea, Barbara’s intellect, Damian’s determination. Dick’s smile.

Jason knew what he had to do. 

A little while later, he was pulling back into the Batcave. Dick looked up from where he was sitting at the computers. He had his feet tucked up underneath him. Jason felt a wave of affection bloom in his chest as he realized how young it made Dick look.

“Jason?” Dick looked up. Jason almost hated himself for how hopeful Dick looked. 

“Yeah.” He got off the bike and stood there awkwardly. 

“I didn’t think you were coming back,” Dick said, walking over to where Jason was still standing. 

“Well. I did,” he said simply. 

Dick pulled him in for a tight hug. Jason wrapped his arms around Dick’s middle and hugged back, just as tightly, burying his face in Dick’s neck.

“I’m glad,” he heard Dick say quietly. Jason just held him tighter.

*

Jason crouched on the rooftop of the building opposite of where Joker had set up his base. He’d set the charges to blow, and was sitting with the trigger waiting for Oracle’s signal. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm his nerves.

He was about to go racing into a warehouse to confront the Joker. Jason was pretty sure he’d had this exact nightmare before, and it hadn’t ended well for him. This time, though, he wasn’t going to wake up. This was real, and he was actually doing this. 

“You alright?” Dick asked over the comm. 

“Peachy,” Jason said, not really wanting to get into it. Dick knew exactly what this meant to him, and Jason was sure he’d read between the lines of what Jason hadn’t said. 

“If you need to get out of there, at any point, you do it,” Dick said sternly. “This mission is not more important than your safety and well-being.”

And that right there was the biggest difference between Bruce and Dick. Bruce thought of the mission first and foremost, whereas Dick actually cared about the human element. If Damian continued as Robin under Dick, Jason mused, he might actually make it out alive.

“Understood, Nightwing. Hoping it won’t come to that. Ready to go on your signal, Oracle.” Jason just wanted to get this over with. The sooner he could start acting, the sooner he could get this whole mess over with. The sooner he could decide which way tonight was going to go. 

“Alright Batman, we’re ready on my end. On my signal, you blow the charges. I’ll hit the lights. You go get Joker.”

Jason nodded, even though he knew no one could see him. “Got it.”

He could hear the sound of keys tapping, then “Go.” Jason pressed down on the trigger to the charges and didn’t wince at all as half of the building in front of him exploded. 

“Lights are out,” Barbara said in his ear. “We’re with you every step of the way. Go kick some butt.”

“I’ll do my best,” Jason quipped as he fired his grapple onto the other building. He jumped, swung, and crashed through a window on the opposite side, curling into a ball and rolling as he fell. He turned on his infrared lenses in the cowl and quickly scanned the room. Room was empty, good. 

“Picking up thermal imaging, looks like almost everyone ran towards the explosions. Four people in a room on the floor below you.”

“Thanks, O.” Jason picked himself up and started to head out of the room. With any luck, he could get in and out before most of the muscle came back to this side of the building. Keeping his head down and staying as much in the shadows as he could, he slunk to the stairwell and headed down a level. So far, so good.

He paused for a second outside the doorway. Now or never, Jay, he thought to himself, before turning and kicking down the door.

He strode in, ready to fight his way through the men to Joker…only to find the room much fuller than he’d anticipated. The Joker was standing on the other side of the room, flanked by at least twenty men.

Shit.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my ole pal, Batsy.” The Joker’s eyes narrowed. “Or should I say, my new pal, Batsy. I knew Bats was different, but you’re even different-er.”

“Stand down, Joker. Time to go back to Arkham,” Jason pulled himself up to his full (taller than Dick, but still not quite as big as Bruce) height and used his best imitation of the Batman growl.

The Joker clapped slowly, his signature grin slowing splitting his face. “Oh, very good. Daddy must be so proud.”

Jason quickly weighed his options. He could attempt to carry on with the plan, to fight his way through the men and get to Joker. He could stick around as long as he deemed it safe, gather as much intel as he could, then get out. Or he could cut and run now. Jason sighed. He’d never been much of one for backing down from a challenge. Looked like he was doing this.

“I mean it, Joker. Party’s over.”

Joker frowned. “Your sense of humor is even worse than the last one’s. When are we going to get a fun Batman, huh?”

Jason suddenly realized he hadn’t heard either Oracle one or Oracle two since he’d entered the room, which meant either there was something blocking the signal, or they’d both chosen an extremely inconvenient time for a bathroom break. Jason took a step forward, clenching his fists. This was going to suck. 

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Joker raised an eyebrow and smiled wickedly at Jason. “Boys?”

The men charged at Jason. This was going to be bad. 

Jason quickly fired a grapple up into the rafters, trying to gain a better vantage point of what exactly he was dealing with. Twenty men, five with guns, though they were still currently holstered. That was a perk. 

“Hiding in the rafters? Truly living up to your name there. Come on down, give us a show!” God, the Joker’s voice was grating. Come on, Jay, focus. Get to the ones with guns first, then start on the rest. 

Jason threw down a smoke bomb, hoping to give himself a little bit of cover, before swooping down and knocking one of the be-gunned thugs into the other. Their heads ricocheted off of each other and both hit the floor with a thump. He jabbed an elbow into the stomach of one of the thugs behind him and threw a fist into the face of the other. A swift kick into the stomach of another in front, which knocked him and the thug behind him off-balance. Jason felt an arm wrap around his throat and threw his head back. The arm loosened, but Jason had forgotten the cowl wasn’t quite as tough as the helmet he was accustomed to wearing. 

Slightly dazed, he tried to shake it off and focus. He dodged a punch, grabbed the fist, and twisted to dislocate the shoulder. Another punch, another dislocated shoulder. Dodge. Punch. Turn. Kick.

It was too much. Jason wasn’t used to the weight and bulk of the Batsuit, and it was slowing his reaction times. He missed dodging a punch and took a hit directly to a kidney. It winded him, long enough for an uppercut to the chin to take him by surprise. 

Suddenly, he was being tackled and piled onto. Shit shit shit, this wasn’t supposed to go this way. He twisted, writhed, fought to get free, but there was too much weight on his limbs. Jason wasn’t going anywhere.

“Now!” The Joker clapped his hands together once and rubbed them together eagerly. “We’re going to put on a little show.” He nodded, and suddenly Jason was being lifted and held to a chair. Okay, they were using zip ties. That he could work with. It felt like two each around each ankle, and three around each wrist. 

“As you can see, Batman,” Joker said, forcing Jason’s attention back to him. “We’re all set up for a performance. And you’re the big star.” He stepped in front of Jason and faced the apparently live cameras. “People of Gotham! Joker here, along with a very special guest. Batman! Now, I know you, Gotham, you sneaky bastards, you. You say you don’t need to know who the Batman is, as long as he keeps you all safe. But you do. So, call the number currently on your screen. It gets to one million calls, and this camera comes back on, this time to a Batman sans cowl. Call now!” He chuckled as the cameras cut the live feed.

The Joker turned to face Jason once more. He tried not to waver under the scrutiny of Joker’s gaze. “Now, Batsy. It’s your turn. I have a very magnanimous offer. If you tell me who the other two Batmen are, I won’t broadcast their identities to the world.” He put his hands on his knees and leaned into Jason’s face. “Just yours.”

Jason spat at the Joker’s feet. “Fuck you.”

He could see the recognition slowly spread through Joker’s face. “Wait a minute. I know you.” He laughed. God, that laugh. That laugh had followed Jason, had haunted his nightmares ever since he’d woken up from his dip in the Lazarus pit. “We’ve met before! Robin, wasn’t it?” Joker practically purred. “Hmm, anyone have a crowbar? Something about you really makes me feel the urge to swing one.”

Jason fought to keep his breathing steady, to keep himself present, to not slip into a flashback. Except at the moment, Jason wasn’t sure which was worse: the Joker of his memories or the Joker of the present standing right in front of him. 

“Hmm, didn’t like that did you? Maybe I should go get a crowbar.” He put a finger to his chin and pretended to think. “But why bother, when this works just as well?” The Joker backhanded Jason across the face.

Jason needed to get out of here, and now. He activated the blades hidden in his gauntlets and started surreptitiously sawing through the zip ties around his wrists. 

Apparently, Joker hadn’t gotten the reaction he’d wanted out of Jason, as he decided to backhand him again, this time the other way. All this served to do was piss Jason off. He was in a warehouse with the Joker beating on him again. Only this time he didn’t have the hope that Batman would save him.

“Beat me all you want, I’m not giving you shit,” Jason snarled.

Joker raised a hand to hit him again, but the sound of another explosion to the building stayed his hand. They both turned to look towards the door. 

That hadn’t been one of Jason’s charges. All of the ones that he’d set had been fired. So who else was blowing up the building?

“Well, don’t just stand there! Figure it out!” Joker yelled at the remaining henchmen in the room. They quickly hurried out of the room. Joker turned back to Jason, when suddenly Damian dropped out of the rafter and landed directly on top of him.

Jason chose that moment to break his wrists free of the weakened zip ties, and deftly caught the knife Damian threw at him. 

“Get yourself free, I need you!” he yelled, punching the Joker in the face before rolling away. 

Jason used the Joker’s momentary distraction to cut his legs free and stand up. He grabbed the chair he’d been tied to and smashed it over the Joker’s head.

“GCPD should be arriving in about 30 seconds.” Damian looked him over. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Jason said gruffly. “Just ready--” The Joker reared up and lunged for Damian. 

Jason got to him first. “No,” he growled. “You will not do this again.” He backhanded the Joker and sent him flying.

“You will not hurt anyone else,” he punched him again as the Joker tried to sit up. “You will not tear any more families apart.” And suddenly Jason was on top of him, pummeling his face. Jason’s vision had gone red, all he could see was the white of Joker’s face and the black of his gauntlets and the red of the blood that was slowly staining both and—

“Jason. JASON!” Dick’s voice came back in through the comm link. Damian must have disabled the signal jammer. 

Jason took a shuddering breath and pulled himself off of the Joker. He sank down on the floor, looking at his hands.

“Are you okay? Jason, come on. Respond.” Dick sounded frantic.

“Yeah,” Jason said quietly. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

Dick sighed. “Oh thank god, Jason. What happened? How’d you get out?”

“Robin.”

“Damian? I thought he was in his room.” Dick sounded incredulous.

Jason couldn’t help but laugh. Son of a bitch, that fucking kid. 

“If you’re quite finished, shall we take this piece of scum back to Arkham where he belongs?” Damian asked, looking proud.

“Let’s do it.” Jason stood up and pulled some zip ties of his own out of his utility belt to restrain the Joker. He handed some over to Damian. “Robin.”

Damian looked up at him almost hesitantly, as if he was prepared to get yelled at.

“Good job. Thank you.”

Damian cocked an eyebrow, haughtily. “Of course. What’s Batman without a Robin by his side?”

They hauled the Joker downstairs and into the waiting Batmobile, and if Jason had to hit him one more time to knock him out and get him to shut up, well, that was his own business, Jason figured.

“Need a ride?” Jason asked Damian after they’d dealt with Gordon and helped round up the rest of thugs.

“I’m covered, thanks.” Damian turned to leave.

“How did you get here?” Jason asked, suddenly curious.

“Your bike,” Damian answered. “You really should be more careful where you leave your toys.”

That fucking kid.

 

*

“So Joker is back in Arkham?” Dick asked over the comm.

“He is. Took him there myself,” Jason replied, grimly. 

There was silence on the comm link for a few long moments. “I’m proud of you, Jay,” Dick said quietly.

“Why?” Jason asked. He hadn’t done anything to be proud of. He’d beat the shit out of Joker until Dick’s shouting in his ear had finally gotten through the buzzing in his head and the red in his vision and made him stop pummeling the shitstain of a human being into the floor underneath him. 

“Because you did a good job, Jay,” Dick said kindly. “I know you and the Joker have history, and I know how much you hate him. But you didn’t kill him.”

“I wanted to,” Jason breathed. “I wanted to, Dick. Don’t tell me you’re proud of me when I wanted to kill him. When I tried to kill him.”

“But you didn’t, Jay. You didn’t kill him. You stopped.” Jason heard Dick take a deep breath. “You did what I couldn’t.”

Jason suddenly felt numb. “Dick, what…”

“I killed him, Jay. I mean it didn’t stick, but I did.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Dick was silent for a moment. “Because I thought you of all people might not judge me for that.”

Shit, Jason had fucked up. Again. “No, I mean why are you telling me this now?” Now, when I’m in the Batmobile and can’t kiss you, Jason thought almost desperately.

More silence. All Jason could hear was the road underneath the Batmobile as he drove back to the Manor and Dick’s breathing on the comm. “I don’t know,” Dick finally said. “I guess…I felt like I wasn’t being honest unless you knew. You compare the two of us, I know you do. And I know that you worry about not living up to me. I know that Bruce is partly the cause for that. For you feeling like you aren’t good enough. And I guess I just wanted to even the playing field a bit. Show you that I’m not the perfect standard to live up to. You are good enough, Jason. I wouldn’t have asked you to be Batman if I didn’t believe that.”

Jason wished he could have seen Dick’s face during that. 

Jason slowly pulled the car into the cave and put it in park. He turned it off and sat there for a moment, tugging the cowl down off his face. The words he’d wanted to say so desperately for the past few days, weeks, months, years, threatened to overflow. And Jason was terrified. Terrified that letting those words free would ruin everything. He’d finally gotten his family back, was finally on good terms with everyone again. He should be content with that. Be happy that he had that, at the very least. And yet he wasn’t. 

“Dick?” Jason asked, softly.

“What’s up, Jay? I heard the car pull in. Are you hurt?” Dick sounded concerned. 

“I love you.” It spilled over. Jason felt the world around him slow, was hyperaware of every minute sound, wanting, waiting desperately for a response from Dick.

“Jay…”

Fuck. No. He’d done it, he’d ruined everything, thrown everything he’d worked so hard for - everything he’d ever wanted - away all because of some stupid crush that hadn’t been buried in the ground with him. “But it’s fine, Dick, it’s fine. You don’t have to say anything, do anything, I just needed--”

“Jay.” Dick said again, softer. “Get out of the car.”

Jason’s stomach clenched. His hands felt shaky, felt like he couldn’t take a deep breath. Surely Dick wasn’t about to throw him out. He wasn’t healed up, still needed someone to be Batman… He forced himself to take a deep breath and shakily got out of the car. 

Dick was waiting for him. He smiled. “Say it again.” 

Oh. “I love you,” Jason said. 

Dick was smiling even wider as he walked closer. He slid one hand up over Jason’s cheek and smoothed a thumb over his cheekbone. “I love you too.”

And suddenly Dick had both hands cradling Jason’s jaw as he leaned up to kiss him. Jason’s hands grabbed Dick’s hips to steady them both. Dick’s lips were smooth, and warm, and tasted like the vanilla chapstick Jason knew he liked. 

And then Dick was deepening the kiss, darting his tongue out to lick at the seam of Jason’s lips, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth—

Jason’s back hit the door of the Batmobile. Dick was leaning up against him, running his hands through his hair, over his face, down his chest. 

“Dick,” Jason pulled back. Dick started kissing his neck instead. “Dick, wait, we. What…”

“Pretty sure we’re making out, Jay,” Dick said between kisses. 

“Dick, stop.” Dick immediately stopped what he was doing and straightened up, dropping all contact and putting a few inches of distance between himself and Jason. 

“You okay?” he asked, the concern evident in his eyes. 

Jason took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, before it settled on the back of his neck. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Just needed a minute. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” Dick closed the distance between them again. He gently ran his hand up Jason’s forearm and closed his hand around Jason’s wrist. “You don’t ever need to apologize for taking a minute for yourself.” Dick’s thumb slowly starting swiping over Jason’s wrist. “Besides, I kind of jumped on you. You’ve had an emotional night, I should’ve given you some space.”

“No.” Jason rested his hand on Dick’s lower back and pulled him back in. “I don’t want space. I want to be close to you.”

Dick smiled, and pulled Jason down to press another chaste kiss to his lips. “You’ll be closer when there aren’t three inches of Kevlar in between us. Get changed. I’ll meet you upstairs.” Dick gently traced his thumb along Jason’s jaw, then kissed him again, lingering a little longer this time, before turning and heading for the manor. 

Jason stared at his ass as he walked away. Dick loved him, he was totally allowed to do that now. Jason stripped out of the Batsuit and put everything away as neatly as he could. Normally he put much more care into his gear, but tonight he was slightly preoccupied. He changed into the tshirt and sweats he’d left down here earlier, and followed the path Dick had taken back into the manor. He climbed up the main staircase and stopped in front of Dick’s door. 

He stopped, suddenly nervous. What if this was a terrible idea? What if it was all a terrible mistake he was about to make? Jason took a deep breath and forced those thoughts out of his mind. This was a good thing. And he was allowed to feel good about it. 

The door to Dick’s bedroom slowly opened before Jason could knock. Dick smiled up fondly at him. “I could hear you angsting. Come in, Jay. It’s okay.” 

Jason walked into Dick’s room as Dick shut the door behind him. Suddenly, Dick’s arms were around Jason’s middle as Dick hugged him from behind. He felt Dick press a kiss between his shoulder blades. “I’m content to just cuddle, Little Wing. We don’t have to do anything tonight.” 

Jason twisted so that he was facing Dick. “It’s not that. I want to. I want…you.” He rested his hands on the small of Dick’s back just above his ass. Come on Jason, you took on the Joker earlier tonight. You can admit this. “I’m nervous,” he confessed quietly, looking at the floor. 

Jason felt Dick’s hand on his chin, gently tipping his face up. “Jay. You don’t need to be nervous. It’s okay. Come here.” Dick grabbed Jason’s hands and pulled him towards the bed. He pulled Jason into the bed next to him and tucked the covers over them both. Jason laughed softly as Dick pulled him into his arms and nestled Jason’s head on his chest. 

“Dick?” 

“Yes, Jason?” Dick smoothed a hand into Jason’s hair and gently combed through the messy curls.

“You know I’m bigger than you, right?” Jason asked, feeling slightly ridiculous in the position Dick had put them in. 

Dick had a shit-eating grin on his face, Jason could tell without even looking at him. “No, actually, I don’t. I’d love to find out if that’s true though.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Not what I meant, and you know it. Shouldn’t I be the big spoon?”

“Well, you know what they say. Spooning leads to forking.”

“No one says that.” Jason tilted his head up to look at Dick. 

“I do.” Dick shrugged. 

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t say that.” Jason smiled fondly. Normally he’d put up more of a fight against Dick’s sense of humor, but he was currently reveling in the fact that he was touching Dick, lying on Dick, didn’t have to hold back about his feelings anymore.

“Oh yeah? You gonna do something to stop me?” Dick grinned even wider. Jason saw it for the obvious line it was, but honestly couldn’t find it in himself to care. He smirked. 

“Maybe I will.” Jason used his body weight to his advantage and rolled, pulling Dick on top of him as he went. He landed on his back with Dick straddling his hips, before using Dick’s tshirt to pull him in for a kiss. Dick made a startled noise, before resting his hands on Jason’s shoulders and kissing him back enthusiastically. 

Jason tried to keep it slow, he really did, but Dick’s mouth on his was intoxicating, making him feel lighter than any of the fancy champagne he used to sneak at Wayne galas when Bruce and Alfred hadn’t been paying attention. He licked into Dick’s mouth, deepening the kiss as his hands tangled in Dick’s hair to hold him in place. Dick’s hands settled down on Jason’s chest, stroking the muscle there and down Jason’s arms. 

Dick arched his back, rolling his hips into Jason’s as he leaned down to mouth at Jason’s neck. “Is this okay?”

“Yes, Dick, it’s good.” Jason ran his hands down Dick’s back and finally, finally, got to grab Dick’s ass. He rolled his hips up to meet Dick’s, using his hold on Dick’s ass as leverage. 

Dick let out a breathy moan. “Not really seeing what you were nervous about, Jay.” 

“I mean, I’ve kissed, I think I’ve got that under control. Wasn’t exactly nervous about that.” 

“Then what were you nervous about?”

Jason didn’t say anything. 

Dick stilled and pulled back to look at him. “Jason?”

Jason dropped his eyes. “Dick. I was 15 when I died. And after I came back, I was…slightly focused on other things.”

Dick’s hands stroked soothingly over Jason’s chest. “Jay, it’s okay if you’re a virgin, just--”

“I’m not a virgin. I, um…” Don’t make me tell you. Jason thought, worried what Dick would think of him if he knew.

“Jay?” Dick carefully climbed off Jason’s lap and sat cross-legged on the bed next to him. “Be honest with me. If we’re going to do this, we need to communicate. Is it that I’m a man, or just being inexperienced in general?”

Jason sighed, feeling more embarrassed than he could remember being since coming back to life. “I had sex…with Talia.”

“Talia.” Dick said. “As in, Damian’s mother, Talia?”

“Yeah. And a couple drunken fumbles in bar bathrooms and alleys. But not…” Jason didn’t know what to say. Not this, he thought. Not with someone who actually cares, not with someone who isn’t just using me, not with someone who…loves me.

Dick reached over to brush the hair off Jason’s forehead. “Not this. I understand. Thank you for telling me.”

“I love you,” Jason said again. “And I want this, I do. I just…I.” He looked down at his lap, needing a second to think. “I don’t want to screw this up.” He looked back up at Dick to see kind blue eyes staring back at him. 

“Jay,” Dick ran his thumb over Jason’s cheekbone. “You’re not going to screw this up. There is no pressure here, okay? We have time. We aren’t going to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. I love you, too.”

Jason leaned in to brush a kiss to Dick’s lips. The hand on Jason’s cheek ended up tangled in his curls as Dick tipped his head down to meet his own. Jason slipped an arm around Dick’s waist, sighing as Dick deepened the kiss. Jason broke away, his thumb gently sliding over Dick’s hipbone. 

“I want you.” Jason said, staring steadfastly at Dick. “Show me how to want you.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll stop me if you’re uncomfortable?”

Jason nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay.” Dick climbed back onto Jason’s lap, keeping his hips carefully away from Jason’s. Jason tried to pull him closer. “Ah, ah.” Dick caught Jason’s hands and slipped them underneath Dick’s tshirt. “Not yet.” He grabbed the hem of his shirt and slowly pulled it up and off his body, throwing it somewhere in the room, not breaking eye contact with Jason. 

Jason smoothed his hands up Dick’s chest, reveling in the sensation of actually getting to look, getting to touch, not feeling guilty at appreciating the gorgeous body in front of him. On top of him. He leaned up to mouth at a scar just under Dick’s nipple. He could feel Dick’s breath hitch and the slight shudder than ran through his body. Wondering what would happen, Jason kissed his way up to latch onto Dick’s nipple. Jason was not expecting the moan that came out of Dick’s mouth. 

“Again I ask, what were you so nervous about?” Dick asked, laughing breathily. He grabbed them hem of Jason’s tshirt. Jason quickly caught his hands and pulled back slightly. 

“I have, um. I have a lot of scars.” He said.

“And I don’t?” Dick asked, quietly.

“Yours are different. Yours are you. They’re fitting.”

“I firmly believe that yours are just as fitting, but if you’re uncomfortable, you don’t have to take it off.” Dick smiled sweetly. “But I would love to see you.”

Jason thought for a moment. Thought about how he loved the chance to see Dick shirtless and be able to look, how Dick’s scars highlighted who he was. Thought that maybe Dick would feel the way about his scars the way he felt about Dick’s. “You promise?”

Dick nodded. “I promise.”

Jason let go of Dick’s hands and allowed himself to be peeled out of his shirt. Dick’s hands smoothed down Jason’s chest, fingers brushing over scars and bruises. 

Dick leaned in to kiss Jason sweetly. “I was right. They fit you.”

Jason didn’t know what to say and looked down again, unable to maintain eye contact, unused to the positive attention. He could feel Dick’s eyes on him, cataloguing his reactions. 

“Jason?” Dick asked. 

“Yeah?” Jason looked up. 

“You’re very attractive,” Dick said matter-of-factly.

Jason could feel his cheeks heating up. “Nothing like you, Golden Boy. No one’s ass can compete with that.”

Dick tilted his head. “Jason, have you seen your arms lately? Or your thighs? God, I’d love to see you in the scaly panties now.” Dick finally moved his hips close enough that if Jason moved slightly, they’d align. He leaned down to wrap his arms around Jason’s neck and talk directly into Jason’s ear. “All that skin, just there to be looked at. And the muscle. You’re so strong, Jay. You don’t know what it does to me.” 

Jason grabbed Dick’s hips and pulled them down, meeting his own. They both let out a groan as their cocks lined up for the first time. 

“See, Jay? What you do to me?” Dick rolled his hips, quickly finding a steady rhythm. 

Jason slid his hands underneath the waistband of Dick’s sweats to grab at his ass. “Fuck, Dick,” he groaned. 

“Hmm, not tonight. Soon, though. And you can hold me to that. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.” Dick gave Jason a lascivious wink. “But tonight, I think I’m going to finally get my mouth on you.” He leaned in to give Jason a scorching kiss. “Sound good?”

Jason could only nod in agreement. He hadn’t felt this turned on in ages. Something about the way Dick moved, Dick talked… He’d figured out exactly how to push Jason’s buttons and make him want. And Jason honestly couldn’t say that he was angry about it in the slightest. He felt light, lighter than he’d felt in a very long time. Dick’s praise had made him feel good, like every nerve in his body was suddenly thrumming. 

Dick climbed gracefully off the bed. How exactly he managed to look that smooth, Jason had no idea. Dick slowly leaned over, pulling his sweatpants down his legs as he went, before arching his back and standing up.

“Did you just fucking bend and snap?” Jason asked, somewhat incredulous. 

“Are you complaining?” Dick asked, turning back around. He cocked a hip out and stood there, smirking down at Jason, who took a long moment to slide his eyes over Dicks’ body and finally look.

“I can honestly say that I have nothing to complain about at this current moment in time.” And also, holy shit I am the luckiest bastard in all of Gotham City, Jason thought. 

“Really? Nothing?” Dick asked, climbing back onto the bed and smoothing his hands up Jason’s thighs. 

“I mean, I would be happy if I were also currently naked, but that’s not a complaint. More like a cherry on top of a sex sundae,” Jason said. 

“Luckily for you, I think I can make that happen,” Dick grinned as he grabbed the waistband of Jason’s sweats this time and just as gracefully slid them down Jason’s legs. “God, Jay, you’re so gorgeous,” he said, throwing the sweats somewhere off into the room. 

Dick leaned in to press a kiss to Jason’s left knee, then gently bit the skin just above it. He methodically licked and bit his way all the way up Jason’s left thigh, then ghosted a breath over Jason’s cock before moving over to the other thigh and repeating the process. Jason was currently learning that his thighs were far more sensitive than he’d ever thought or known, and was dealing with that knowledge by becoming a borderline incoherent mess.

“Dick, please,” he moaned, grabbing the sheets in his fists because he needed to do something, anything with this hands. 

Dick gently untangled Jason’s fists from the sheets and set them in his hair. “You can pull my hair, if you want. And by can, I mean you should.” He gave Jason one more quick smile before swallowing down his cock in one quick movement. 

“Di-ick!” Jason’s breath hitched as his hands tightened involuntarily in Dick’s thick hair, causing Dick to moan around Jason’s cock. Oh hell, this was not going to last long. Jason tried to keep his hips still as Dick wrapped a hand around the base of Jason’s cock and stroked, all while still sucking on the head of Jason’s cock. 

Jason could feel the tight feeling in his abdomen building, tried to stave off his orgasm, wanted to stretch this out-

“Dick, I’m gonna,” Jason panted. Dick looked up at him. The sight of Dick looking at him, those crystal blue eyes looking at him, so warm and trusting, tipped Jason over the edge and suddenly he was coming in Dick’s mouth. Dick worked him through the orgasm before pulling off and wiping his mouth. 

“God, Jay.” Holy shit, he sounded wrecked. Jason tried to pretend he didn’t like the thought that he’d been the cause of that, but was fighting a losing battle. “God, you’re gorgeous.”

Jason grabbed Dick by the back of the neck and pulled him in for a deep, languid kiss. Or at least, that’s what Jason had intended, but the needy, hungry way Dick kissed him reminded him that Dick hadn’t come yet. He tentatively guided Dick to straddle his lap, before carefully sliding a hand down his chest and taking Dick in hand. “Is this okay?” he asked, slowly stroking Dick’s cock. 

“More than okay. Fucking perfect, pun fully intended.” Dick rolled his hips and fucked into Jason’s hand. 

Jason tangled his hand in Dick’s hair and guided him down for a messy kiss. He sucked on Dick’s bottom lip as he thumbed at the slit of Dick’s cock. “So pretty, Dickie.”

Dick moaned. “Yes, Jason.”

“You like that, don’t you?” Jason asked, somewhat in awe. “When I call you pretty.” 

Dick smiled down at him, his eyes slightly hazy with lust. “I do,” he admitted. “Though honestly it’s your voice, more than anything else.” He moaned again as Jason increased the speed of his hand. “God, Jay. Talk to me, please.”

“You’re so pretty, Dickie. You’ve always been so pretty.” Jason wasn’t sure what he was saying, but from the way Dick was arching his back and panting lightly, Jason was doing something right. “I had such a crush on you as a kid. And those fucking short pants didn’t hide anything. No idea how you didn’t notice.” Jason slid the hand in Dick’s hair down his chest to twist at a dusky nipple. 

“Oh fuck, Jason, please,” Dick whined.

“Come on, Dickie. Want to see you come.” Jason stroked even faster, as he grabbed Dick’s hair again to pull him in for a bruising kiss. “Please.”

Dick did, spilling onto Jason’s stomach, with Jason’s name on his lips. “Jason,” he panted, resting his forehead against Jason’s. “God, that was perfect. You’re perfect.” He kissed Jason again, before looping his arms around Jason’s neck and resting his head on Jason’s shoulder. 

Jason’s body thrummed at the praise, and the feeling that he’d been able to do this to Dick. That he’d actually had sex with Dick. He sat there for a long moment, curling an arm around Dick and reaching up to play with the soft hair at the nape of Dick’s neck. 

Too soon however, the mess on his stomach was quickly becoming gross. “Hey, let me go clean up, okay?”

Dick shook his head. “No. M’comfy.”

Jason laughed. “You’re totally gonna pass out on me, aren’t you?”

Dick sat up to look at Jason blearily. “No m’not.”

“Uh huh. Sure.” He kissed Dick gently. “I’ll be right back.”

Dick rolled off him, allowing Jason to go clean himself off in the bathroom. He came back with a washcloth to clean up a Dick who was apparently feeling very languid after coming. Jason threw the washcloth in the tub, then walked back into Dick’s room, suddenly unsure what he should do. Was Dick expecting him to leave?

Dick looked up at him. “Get back here, Jay.” He smiled warmly and reached out a hand to Jason. 

Jason suddenly felt relieved. He grabbed Dick’s outstretched hand and crawled back into the bed, pulling the covers back down over them both, much like Dick had done earlier. Dick immediately rolled over and rested his head on Jason’s shoulder. “I love you,” he said, snaking his arm around Jason’s waist. 

“I love you, too.” Jason replied. He wrapped his arm around Dick’s waist, kissed the top of his head, and let the tiredness of the day and Dick’s warmth next to him wash over him and pull him to sleep.

*

Jason looked at his reflection in the mirror. Tonight was his last night patrolling as Batman. He couldn’t believe how quickly the last three weeks had gone by. Tomorrow night, Dick would step back into the cowl and Jason would return to being Red Hood. Jason hated to say he’d miss being Batman, but if he was honest with himself, he would actually miss it. His life had changed so radically in the last three weeks, and none of it would have happened if Dick hadn’t gotten hurt fighting the Joker. It was strange, Jason mused. The Joker had taken everything from him, but in a weird sense, the Joker had also given it all back to him. 

He walked into the main area of the cave. “You ready, kiddo?” he called over to Damian. 

“Ready,” Damian answered with a slight smile. 

“Have fun,” Dick walked over and draped his arms around Jason’s shoulders. “I’ll see you when you get back.” He leaned up and pressed a kiss to Jason’s lips. 

Jason allowed himself to slip his arms around Dick’s waist and let the kiss linger a few moments longer. 

“If you two are quite finished, we do need to go on patrol sometime before dawn,” Damian’s voice rang out from his seat in the Batmobile. 

Dick laughed as he pressed one more quick kiss to Jason’s lips. “Go. I’ll be here when you get back.” He smiled warmly. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Jason leaned in to give Dick one more kiss. He could hear Damian’s frustrated groan echo. 

Dick laughed and broke the kiss. “Go, before he kills us both in our sleep.” He swatted at Jason’s shoulder.

Jason smiled and headed for the Batmobile, pulling up the cowl as he went. After tonight he would lose the cowl, but his family, Dick...everything else would remain.

*

The lights of Gotham sparkled underneath Jason’s feet. The weather was starting to get cool, and he pulled his jacket tighter around him as the wind whipped through the air, though the brunt of the wind was blocked by the massive gargoyle Jason was leaning against. 

He glanced back as he heard the heavy sound of boots behind him. “Hey.”

“Jason.” Bruce’s voice rumbled.

“What’s up, B?”

Bruce was back. Back to the land of the living. Back in the cowl. Back in Jason’s life. And Jason wasn’t exactly sure how to feel. They hadn’t really spoken much. Jason had been avoiding the manor, not sure Bruce would want to even see him. 

“I wanted to thank you.”

“What for?” Jason couldn’t remember anything he’d done recently that was particularly charitable, but you never could tell with Bruce. 

“Dick told me about your time in the cowl.”

“Well, whatever he told you, you know how Dick likes to exaggerate.” Jason stood up, feeling like this was a conversation he didn’t want to have with his feet hanging off the edge of a building.

Bruce tugged down the cowl. Somehow being able to look Bruce in the eye was even more terrifying than talking to Batman. “Jason, I know our history, and what you’ve been through, and it makes me respect your decision even more. You took on the Joker. You didn’t kill.”

Jason shrugged. “I just did what needed to be done.”

“You did what needed to be done, but you didn’t have to be the one to do it.” Bruce smiled and walked closer to Jason, putting his hand on his shoulder. “You did a good job. I’m proud to call you my son.”

Jason’s throat felt tight. “Thanks, B.”

Bruce pulled him into a hug. Jason allowed himself to be pulled in, and wrapped his arms around Bruce’s middle.

They stood there for a long moment. Bruce pulled back and rested a hand gently on Jason’s shoulder as Jason surreptitiously wiped his face dry with the sleeve of his jacket. 

“So, we’ll be seeing you around the manor more often?” Bruce asked. 

“Yeah. I’ve missed it there, actually.” 

“Good. Damian has been asking about you. Dick, too.” Bruce quirked an eyebrow. Jason wanted to melt into the ground. “I’m glad you’re happy, Jason. You deserve it. And if Dick makes you happy, I would never stand in the way of that.”

“Thank you.”

“So,” Bruce said, pulling the cowl back up. “We’ll see you Sunday for dinner? Alfred’s making a roast.”

Jason smiled. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> [You can check out Penta's amazing art for the story here!](https://pentapoda.tumblr.com/post/165063960498/a-batfamreversebigbang-prompt-for-this-story-we)
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you for reading! Leave a comment or kudos if you enjoyed. You can find me on tumblr at [graysonning.](graysonning.tumblr.com)


End file.
